Ignace Pleyel

Born in Ruppersthal in Lower Austria in 1757, died in 1831; Ignace Pleyel, originally Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, combined a Europe-wide career as a composer with a music publishing house and a piano manufactory. After his training with Johann Baptist Wanhal and Joseph Haydn he served as Kapellmeister to Count Ladislaus Erdödy in Pressburg and undertook study journeys to Italy. In Strasbourg he became deputy Kapellmeister at the Minster in 1783 and cathedral Kapellmeister in 1789; in 1791 he accepted an invitation to direct the Professional Concerts in London. In 1795 he moved to Paris, where in 1797 he opened a music publishing house which, alongside his own works, also published music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Boccherini. In 1807 a piano manufactory was added, later continued by his son Camille. He was buried in a grave of honour in the Paris cemetery of Père-Lachaise. On the Cybele album Strings attached (2002) he is represented as a composer.